Falguni Nayar-led Nykaa to acquire Little Black Book

Updated on: 11 August 2022 9:46 pm

DSG Consumer Partners and Alkemi Growth Capital led the funding round along with existing investors like Omnivore and Insitor Partners

D2C food brand Farmley raises $6 Mn in Series A Photo: DSG Consumer Partners and Alkemi Growth Capital led the funding round along with existing investors like Omnivore and Insitor Partners

FSN E-commerce Ventures, which runs the online fashion and lifestyle retailer Nykaa, will acquire lifestyle discovery platform Little Black Book (LBB). In a statement, Nykaa stated that its board has approved the acquisition “in an all-cash deal at a mutually agreed pre-money valuation, subject to closing adjustments.”

The beauty and lifestyle platform added that LBB’s large user base, content creation capability, curation mindset, and relationship with emerging brands make it an attractive content powerhouse. The transaction is expected to be completed within 60 days.

Nihir Parikh, CEO of NykaaMan, said, “We are excited about the strong synergies we share with LBB because, much like Nykaa, they have sharply focused on driving discovery and spotlighting promising homegrown brands across their channels since day one.”

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Suchita Salwan and Dhruv Mathur founded Iluminar Media, which operates LBB, in 2015 as an online lifestyle discovery platform. It has over 70 million users across various channels and registered Rs 19.44 crore revenue in FY 2020-21.

Talking about this partnership, Salwan said, “Together, we want to drive value to Nykaa and LBB’s shared goals to build discovery for India’s emerging brands through content, community and a discovery-first approach. LBB’s robust content creation capabilities and creator network will be leveraged within Nykaa’s platforms to drive consumer engagement and retention, further scaling reach and engagement for our brand partners.”

Nykaa reported a Rs 4.5 crore net profit for April to June 2022 quarter, which is a 32.4% rise from Rs 3.4 crore in the same period the previous year. Its quarter revenue grew 41% to Rs 1,148.4 crore, up from Rs 817 crore in AMJ 2021 quarter.

In April 2022, the online beauty retailer picked up stakes in three companies. Earth Rhythm, Nudge Wellness, and KICA. It acquired an 18.51 per cent stake in clean beauty brand Earth Rhythm for RS 41.65 crore and a 60 per cent stake in nutricosmetics brand Nudge Wellness for Rs 3.6 crore. Its BSE filings showed that it also picked a 100 per cent stake in the athleisure brand KICA for Rs 4.51 crore.

Nykaa was founded a decade ago by Falguni Nayar who quit her investment banking career to start the beauty focused brand. She has emerged as the richest self-made woman with a net worth of Rs 57,520 crore, as per the latest Kotak Private Banking-Hurun list.